CANNABIS AND HEMP MASTER PLAN: CABINET BRIEFED ON PROGRESS

CANNABIS AND HEMP MASTER PLAN: CABINET BRIEFED ON PROGRESS

• 06 September 2024
• Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 6 September 2024, amendments to Schedule 6 of the Medicines & Related Substances Act, 1965, were gazetted and came into force – among other things providing for the cultivation, possession and use of raw or processed cannabis plant material in specific circumstances.  

Nearly three years have passed since hemp was declared an ‘agricultural product’ under the Plant Improvement Act, 1976. Shortly afterwards, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development issued a media statement opening the hemp permit application process and describing the move as a ‘step towards the development’ of a cannabis master plan. Yet according to a press release on Cabinet’s 4 September 2024 meeting, the plan is still very much a work in progress. This is noting that:

• Department of Trade, Industry & Competition consultations on a ‘cannabis commercialisation policy’ have apparently been on hold pending the recent completion of a ‘situational and value chain analysis’ of the hemp and cannabis sector
• the process of drafting regulations giving practical effect to the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act has only recently been ‘initiated’ (the Act having joined the statute books in May 2024), and that
• South African Health Products Regulatory Authority consultations on changes to schedules under the Medicines & Related Substances Act, 1965, have now been ‘concluded’ (although no further detail is provided).

Progress has nevertheless been made with:

• developing seeds for new ‘hemp varieties’
• developing a ‘hemp certification scheme’ for regulating ‘the varietal integrity and quality of hemp propagation material’ in support of a ‘sustainable seed system’, and
• research into:
  • ‘cannabis breeding for medicinal, fibre and other uses’
  • ‘cannabis plant disease surveillance’
  • ‘indigenous germplasm collection’, and
  • further ‘cannabis seed system development’.

The post-Cabinet meeting media statement provides little in the way of useful information on the proposed new master plan itself. Apparently, it will be ‘anchored on nine pillars:

• effective regulatory services
• sustainable seed supply systems
• research and technology development
• producer support systems
• market development
• enterprise and supplier development
• manufacturing and product development
• education and training, and
• communication and awareness.

Meanwhile, according to a media statement recently issued by the National Assembly’s Agriculture Committee, members have ‘asked that the qualitative implementation of all … (master) plans be sped up’. The statement followed briefings from the Department of Trade, Industry & Competition on master plans for the poultry and sugar industries – and from the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development on the May 2022 Agriculture & Agro-processing Master Plan.

Noting the ‘challenges’ apparently facing each industry and the broader sector, the statement quotes committee chair Dina Pule as having said that ‘at the end of the seventh administration in 2029, there must be tangible results … (and evidence of) meeting ‘the objectives … clearly spelt out in the plans’.

According to the post-Cabinet meeting statement, the most recent ‘demonstration’ of the Agriculture & Agro-processing Master Plan’s ‘positive impact’ took place in August 2024, when Japan became a new market for South African avocados.

• 29 October 2021 DALRRD statement on hemp permits
• 8 October 2021 notice declaring hemp an agricultural product
• May 2022 Agriculture & Agro-processing Master Plan
• 4 September 2024 post-Cabinet meeting statement
• 5 September 2024 National Assembly Agriculture committee statement
• Cannabis for Private Purposes Act

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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